Business
No commercial company sector, but supervised financial activity
Vatican City State has no ordinary company registry or private commercial market. Patrimony is administered by APSA, financial activity runs through the IOR, and both are supervised by the financial authority ASIF.
Key rules
- There is no general regime for incorporating private commercial companies.
- ASIF supervises financial activity and carries out financial intelligence functions.
- Public contracts must follow the transparency and competitive tender rules introduced in 2020.
Governing law
- Law on the public contracts of the Holy See and Vatican City State (2020)
- Law on anti-money-laundering and countering the financing of terrorism
In practice
Financial reforms after 2010 brought the Vatican into MONEYVAL evaluation, which now drives most of its commercial-law change.